As a manager, you are wasting your time if you are devoting energy towards developing strategies for how to best motivate your team.  Before you see results, you must first shift your focus to motivating the individuals who make up your team.

With three startups under my belt, having recruited hundreds of successful employees, I found that excellent staff members have anchored their sense of personal satisfaction and fulfillment to a job well done.  When the objectives and values of each individual employee are congruent with the goals of your company, your productivity will skyrocket.

This technique, called Purpose Anchoring, relies on effective communication at every level of your corporation.  Employees must feel at liberty to share what is working, what isn’t working, and what they would like to see change.  The mere act of sharing ideas in an open forum will free your employees to more efficiently become aligned with purpose and passion in everything they do.

Only when your employees feel that they are tied to a purpose do they truly accomplish projects with determination and excellence.  Your corporate goals must speak not only to the bottom line, but of dedication to building a team of individuals working in a fulfilled state.

At PathConnect, I want every one of my employees to feel not only that they are in line with my vision for the company, but also that I support each of them in their pursuit of their own purpose.  This is vital to an organizational buy-in strategy which, at its core, is all about reciprocity.

My corporate vision for PathConnect includes messages of inspiration, change, and dedication to awakening users to their own greatness.  I teach my employees my Five Principles of Fulfillment, the lessons I learned on my own journey from a childhood of poverty to tremendous achievement.

As a teen, I was headed down the wrong path, constantly in trouble.  It wasn’t until the age of 17, when I connected with a mentor, that everything changed.  He saw in me the potential that nobody else had seen.  By making me write down my goals and holding me accountable for them, this mentor helped connect me to my ultimate purpose.

My employees respect my leadership because of my dedication to the goal of connecting people with mentors.  The PathConnect community is breaking new user registration records every day, as thousands of people are taking joy in being mentors and connecting with peers for support in achieving any goal.

My employees are made to feel a part of this greater good because our corporate mission is tied not only to economic advancement, but to helping people achieve greatness every day.  No matter your industry or your corporate culture, there is no reason that each and every one of your employees can’t be aware of his or her passion and purpose.

PathConnect’s Director of Marketing is a writer at heart.  When I hired him, he was upfront in telling me that writing was his true passion, and that he is also pursuing a career as a screenwriter.  This would have been a perfect opportunity to shake his hand and say thank you for coming, but I saw it as a chance to support him in his passion.  Since that day, he has helped take PathConnect and my career to new heights, all the while working on his scripts and following his dream.  He has told me that my ability to support him in his purpose has made him more driven than ever on both fronts.

To try and lead your team as a sheepdog, herding the masses in one general direction, you can envision what happens.  The sheep in front are far from the source of motivation, only moving quickly enough to avoid being run over.  To lead in this way requires your own constant attention and energy that could be used elsewhere.

Spending the time to teach your employees and managers strategies for motivating through alignment with a greater purpose, you will have a team of individuals leading by example, taking you with them on the path to fulfillment of your corporate goals.